OVERVIEW: The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price
of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another
family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before
their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job,
marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day
when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill
her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with
grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of
herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of
winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . .
though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel
full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story
ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a
murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be
better.

FORMAT: Dualed is a YA novel that has a post-apocalyptic
feeling to it. It is filled with advanced technology, adventure, and romance.
It stands at 302 pages and was published by Random House Books for Young
Readers on February 26, 2013.

ANALYSIS: Dualed was one of the YA novels of the year that I
was looking forward to reading. It had a dystopia setting that had a unique
plot twist – two individuals walking around as twins and one must 'kill' the
other in order to survive. Unfortunately, as I sit here days after finishing
the book I have mixed feelings about the entire book.

My mixed feelings stem from the fact that I seemed to enjoy
what I read, but unfortunately the extreme holes presented in the plot and the
rather loosely developed world left me feeling as if this whole book could have
been a lot better.

To fully understand my issues, I will give you a brief
synopsis of the book:

The whole concept of the book revolves around the idea that
some remove part of the nation has found a way to remove themselves from an
ongoing war. Unfortunately, this removal came with a price. The individuals are
unable to produce children.

A group of scientists came up a way to bypass this problem
and created an extremely complex cloning system that involves taking the genes
of two individuals and mixing them with the next two people to create two
children that are the same. These children are brought up in two separate
worlds and will not meet until their 'task'; that is described below.

Now, in order for this new small nation to survive they have
to take the cloned children and force them to kill their alternative self. This
is done in an effort to raise a nation of warriors. Children between the ages
of 10 and 20 are 'activated' and given the task to try and kill their
alternative self within 30 days. If this is not done, on the 31st day
both children die.

This whole process is overseen by a 'board'. However, I
can't really tell you much about the board because they weren't very developed
in the story.

Then things get interesting. People who are unwilling to
kill, or who are extremely rich, can hire a 'striker' who will kill their other
self. This secret striker organization is run by a mysterious man and made up
of the most elite fighters.

While this whole idea may seem like it would make a great
story, it didn't unfold that way. I have so many questions that are left
unanswered. For example, how did the 'alts' (name for the twins until one of
them is killed) not run into each other when growing up? How come the
scientists who created this complex system, were not be able to come up with a
better system that didn't involve mixing genes from random strangers?

The abundance of questions I had only seemed to grow as I
kept reading. I wanted to see more of a roll of "The Board".
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. So this mysterious "Board" was
just left out there with no real development. In fact, it just seemed as if there were a bunch of people running around afraid of the Board, but they didn't really do anything.

I also could not understand how West (main character) was
able to just gain entry into some ultra-secret striker club with no training,
no knowledge, and no experience. How did they know she'd perform the tasks at
hand? Did they not care?

The abundance of questions I was left with when I finished
this novel wasn't my only issue. The writing style of this book is extremely
stiff. I'm not sure if this is intentional because the character is rather
'badass' and wants to keep to herself, or if it was an oversight. This stiff writing style led me to not really
care about the characters, but just read through the book as an observer.

Another issue I had was I kept waiting for someone,
somewhere in the book to rebel against the Board. This doesn't happen. Maybe
there are plans for this in the future, but I kept feeling as if the book was
trying to go one direction (a rebellion), but not succeeding.

Why with so many issues did I keep reading the book? I have
to admit a part of me was intrigued by it. The storyline was rather unique and
I wanted to see how it panned out. Maybe things didn't go the way I wanted.
Maybe I have more questions that need to be answered, but I don't think the
book was a waste of time.

I believe people going into the book understanding that this
is a 'light' novel with no real development can get a lot out of it. There is
also a planned a sequel, so there is a chance that things will flesh out in the
future. I have to admit I hope so, because I feel this story may have had
potential and there might still be hope for it.

5
comments:

I had a lot of the same issues with it. I thought at the very least the strikers should have an exam, or first kill you have to complete successfully in order to join. It's painfully obvious that she wasn't skilled or mature enough for such a 'job' either.

I'm also not sure why the board had trouble finding - and putting down - the strikers. They've got giant hand tattoos for crying out loud. Just have the populace take off their gloves and see who's tattooed.

There's a really good fantasy duology that used a similar premise (must kill twin) by Maria Brennan called "Warrior" and "Witch". You might enjoy those more.

Hmm. Now I admit I haven't read this one myself, but by the sound of it this book is one that take what could be an interesting premise and just ends up with poor execution. It's a shame, because at first the description of the book sounded quite appealing, and I had a dozen questions in my mind about how the world worked and so on. And then the more I read in the review, it seemed like those questions really wouldn't end up getting answered. A disappointment, but better to find that out now than after I'd read the thing and gotten even more disappointed.

You're welcome! I really want to be fair to the series, so maybe these questions are all fully covered in the sequel.

It was a quick read, so I'm sure I'll read it and see.

@Jessica I agree! The tattoos bothered me. I mean the group was so secret, so why were they putting major tattoos on a huge part of their body like that? (Yes, because assassins need their hands), but wouldn't that make them visible to the Board that frowns upon it?

And the whole idea that any individual could just join seemed weird. Like how did her Alt get the Alt's BF to join such a secret club if it was so unknown?